Ghostgirl by Tonya Hurley

Charlotte Usher is your typical teenager - her only problem, she’s basically invisible to the kids in school. She’s the type of person who just blends into the background... has no real friends, isn’t overly academic nor into sports. She is excited this first day of school because she spent her whole summer preparing herself to finally catch the attention of Damen Dylan (yes, he’s the hottest boy in school). Although Damen already has a girlfriend (Petula) - Charlotte plans on not letting anything or anyone get in her way - that includes Petula and her BFF’s - The Wendys. Just as things start looking up for Charlotte when it comes to Damen - she has a mishap with a gummy bear and (dum dum dum) SHE DIES. But she refuses to let something as minuscule as being dead get in the way of her plans. Shortly after her death she learns that she has to complete Dead Ed in place of high school. All “dead” students have to learn something important (something they never learned in life) before crossing over.... and Charlotte is definitely lacking in that subject. Be prepared for possessions (consensual, of course), major stalking issues and even a love triangle.

I must confess I purchased Ghostgirl because I fell in love with the cover (it reminded me of Tim Burton and I ♥ anything a-la Tim Burton). I loved the elongated cover and pages, the color scheme, great illustrations, the font, the borders on every page, etc. In between each chapter there was this fantastic little blurb that caught my attention and I just bought it... very spontaneous-like, since I had never really heard of it before.

With that said, I had some issues with it. Don’t take me wrong, I did find the story unique at first, but then it slowly disintegrated for me. I definitely could not relate to Charlotte - not even thinking back to when I was her age. She was very shallow and I found some of her actions even annoying at times. Luckily, she did outgrow most of this - but it was towards the end of the book so she didn’t fully redeem herself in my eyes. I did like how the story ended (although it did feel a bit rushed) and I can definitely appreciate the message that the author was trying to convey but it was still confusing and I felt as though it left a few plot holes. There were some great characters and some fantastic lines thrown in that made me laugh, but in the end, I must confess I was disappointed with this.